How would you change the Chicago media? It’s the question we posed to a room full of people gathered to think about how the Chicago media cover different neighborhoods in the city.

A packed room of Chicago citizens and journalists discussing Chicago News survey results. Courtesy of City Bureau.

As researchers with the Center for Media Engagement, we had just finished writing up our findings from a survey of 900 Chicagoans. We conducted the survey in collaboration with the City Bureau, a nonprofit civic journalism lab on the South Side of Chicago, with funding from the McCormick Foundation.

The survey results were striking. Those on the South and West Sides reported that coverage of their neighborhoods was too negative and didn’t do a good job of showing what is going on. Those living downtown and on the North Side were far less likely to say the same. We wanted to share these findings and start a dialogue about what might be done to address these concerns.

So on January 18, nearly 70 community members, journalists, and academics gathered at City Bureau to discuss the survey results. At the two-hour event, we presented our findings and then joined City Bureau staff and friends in moderating discussions about the issues raised by the survey.

What came out of this event? A series of dynamic conversations among people who don’t often have a chance to chat and a forward-looking focus on what needs to be done in Chicago. As groups presented to the room, there were several repeated themes and critical takeaways that provide a path forward.

The news media paint a negative picture of some parts of Chicago — the sentiment was echoed in the room and in the survey results. In the survey, 68% of those on the West Side and 54% of those on the South Side thought that stories about their neighborhoods were too negative. Only 26% of those on the North Side and downtown thought so.

At the event, several groups discussed the importance of feeling positively about where you live, and covering the good and the bad so as to better represent the reality of what is happening. As one participant said, people want to read stories “that make them feel good about life.”

People craved in-depth reporting about their neighborhoods. Chicagoans noted that they saw changes in their neighborhoods and wanted to see them reflected in the coverage. Understanding how communities evolve is a far easier task for those with a track record within a particular community.

Although there were concerns about how the South and West sides are covered, there was a sense that some news organizations are getting it right, but not consistently. Moving forward, it may be helpful to look at what is going right and how it can be more consistent and replicated in other news organizations.

Having beat reporters that know local communities is key. At the event, people mentioned the importance of local — truly local — journalists. They wanted reporters with a sustained presence in their communities, as opposed to showing up only when something happens. Even better, newsrooms could work with journalists from different neighborhoods and urge them to spend considerable time in those spaces.

Journalists located within communities can get to know the people and cover stories in ways that go beyond quoting experts and those that “give good tape,” as one participant at the event put it, referring to soundbites captured by radio or TV reporters. In the survey, 51% of those living on the West Side and nearly 42% of those living on the South Side agreed coverage of their neighborhood quoted the wrong people — this compared to only 27% of those living on the North Side and downtown. Journalists with closer ties to neighborhoods have a much better chance of getting the story right.

Having journalists covering specific communities is lovely in theory, but we all know that it can’t happen without a financial plan to support it. The demand for just this sort reporting was in the air throughout the event. And the survey results show that those from the South and West Sides of Chicago are dissatisfied with the reporting about their neighborhoods — and that they are just as interested in paying $10 a month for news as those on the North Side of Chicago.

It is also likely that people don’t want to pay for coverage that isn’t valuable to them. Having news coverage that reflects different neighborhoods may itself drive the business model. Overall, Chicagoans were more interested in donating $10 a month to a news organization than they were in paying $10 a month for news. Those trudging out to City Bureau’s Woodlawn newsroom on a Thursday night had good reasons for why. They wanted a chance to be involved in something that was doing right by their communities.

Indeed, one of the most intriguing findings from the survey was that even though those on the South and West Sides felt misrepresented, they also were the most eager to get involved. Over six in ten people on the South and West Sides said that they would be likely to volunteer to report on a public meeting for a local news outlet. Just over four in ten North Side and downtown residents said that they would do so.

An Evening of Optimism

The event had a pulse, a sense of energy and involvement that was inspiring. Of course, this was a select group of interested attendees and not a cross-section of Chicago residents. Nonetheless, the appetite for local coverage was palpable. Several of the journalists in the room pointed to stellar examples of Chicago media doing precisely this sort of reporting. But the big task remains: figuring out how to tap into this energy in a financially sustainable way. To this end, we’ll need journalists, philanthropists, academics, and community members to come together just as they did on January 18th.

Conducting original, groundbreaking research alongside newsrooms, social media platforms, and organizations looking to influence media practices.